Many of us are passionate about the environment and want to work in an area that fuels this passion. However man cannot live on passion alone and the team at Terra Firma Academy is often asked by new students “how much can I earn as a Carbon Footprint Assessor once I have completed the Terra Firma Academy Carbon Footprint Analyst course. Learners asking this question come from different countries so we felt it was our responsibility to research this answer using feedback from past students and others that are working in the industry.

Through our web based questionnaires the Terra Firma Academy team has interviewed Carbon Footprint Analysts in 4 countries (UK, USA, Australia and South Africa) and the results are summarized below. We found that of all 48 people interviewed at differing levels of experience the average global salary earned in 2011 was R364,000 per year. Experience varied from less than 1 year to 5 years or more across the target group but the average experience in numbers of years was just over 3 years in carbon foot-printing.

In conclusion we found that the salary level of carbon footprint assessors was highly dependent on the level of experience that the candidate had and also whether or not they could conduct multinational carbon footprint assessments. Those assessors that had multinational experience were paid considerably more than others who focused on localized companies. We also found that starting salaries differed quite substantially across the responding countries. Notably the UK and USA candidates had far higher starting salaries. We believe that this is driven by the demand for this type of skill set due to advanced carbon tax legislation or cap and trade systems in place in these countries. Of all the assessors interviewed we found that those that had other analytical skills in finance or environmental assessment consistently earned more than those that did not.

As the level of experience increased we found that salaries across the different countries tended to become more equal. We feel that the reason for this is the global applicability of this skill set that experience carbon footprint assessors had. Anyone with 5 or more years experience and with multinational carbon foot printing experience was considered a very valuable resource and their salary grew exponentially to their years of experience. Another important factor was whether the person had additional qualifications that could complement their role. We found that people interviewed, that had other sustainability, financial or software related (power user) experience tended to earn more than those that only had specific carbon related experience.

Terra Firma Academy is a green career training provider offering a range of environmentally educational courses that will help you and your company excel in the green era. The Academy runs a instructor led Carbon Footprint Analyst course. This course teaches learners how to conduct a carbon footprint assessment in accordance with Global Best Practice which includes the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO 14064 with a focus on clearly explaining each step required when conducting a world-class carbon footprint for an organisation.